Professor Ronald M. Latanision holds joint appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and in the Department of Nuclear Engineering. He is the Director of The H. H. Uhlig Corrosion Laboratory in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of both ASM International and NACE International. From 1983-1988, Professor Latanision was the first holder of the Shell Distinguished Chair in Materials Science. He is a founder of Altran Corporation, established in 1992 with offices and laboratories at 451 D Street in Boston.

Professor Latanision led the Materials Processing Center as its Director from 1985 to 1991. As Director of the MPC, Professor Latanision and his colleagues generated a vision of materials processing in the U.S. which addressed an unprecedented convergence of national priorities: the need to preserve a competitive industrial base, the national defense, the environment, and our energy resources and to develop this Nation's human resources  Americans at every stage in the educational continuum.

After receiving his BS in Metallurgy from The Pennsylvania State University in 1964 and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in 1968, Dr. Latanision became an NRC-NAS Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Bureau of Standards. He worked for the next five years at Martin Marietta Laboratories in Baltimore and in 1974 received a Humboldt Foundation Senior Scientist Award tenable at the Max-Planck-Institut fur Eisenforschung in Düsseldorf, F.R.G. During the course of a sabbatical in 1982-83, Professor Latanision served as a science advisor to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology in Washington, D.C. He served as a member of the Advisory Committee to the Massachusetts Office of Science and Technology, an executive branch office created to strengthen the Commonwealth's science and technology infrastructure with emphasis directed toward future economic growth. Dr. Latanision has served as a member of the National Materials Advisory Board of the National Research Council and now serves as a member of the NRC's Committee on Undergraduate Science Education.

Ronald M. Latanision

Professor of Materials Science and Engineering
Professor of Nuclear Engineering

Professor Latanision's research interests are focused largely in the areas of materials processing and in the corrosion of metals and other materials in aqueous (ambient as well as high temperature and pressure) environments. In addition to consulting with industry and government, he has been active in the organization of international conferences, the most recent on Chemistry and Physics of Fracture, and has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific publications. Professor Latanision chaired the 1980 Gordon Conference on Corrosion, is co-editor of the periodical, Advances in the Mechanics and Physics of Surfaces and is a member of the Editorial Board of Progress in Surface Science and of the Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute of Japan. He is the 1972 recipient of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers' A. B. Campbell Award, a 1984 Henry Krumb Lecturer of the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers (AIME), and the 1986 recipient of the David Ford McFarland Award for Achievement in Metallurgy presented by the Penn State Chapter of the American Society for Metals. In 1991, Professor Latanision received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Engineering at The Ohio State University. In 1992, Professor Latanision was made an Honorary Alumnus by the Association of Alumni/Alumnae of MIT He is the 1994 recipient of the Willis Rodney Whitney Award of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers and was designated as a Centennial Fellow of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State in 1996. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of Naples, Italy, since 1989. Dr. Latanision has served as a Director (Ex Officio) of the National Association of Corrosion Engineers and is Past-Chairman of the NACE Awards Committee.

Professor Latanision has been active in precollege educational initiatives at MIT and currently directs the K-16 Task Force for the Association of American Universities (AAU). He is Chairman of the MIT Council on Primary and Secondary Education and Founder/Director of the MIT Science and Engineering Program for Teachers. He is also co-chairman of the Network of Educators in Science and Technology, NEST, with Constance J. Beal and co-chair elect Susan Matthews of the Connecticut Public Schools, and winner of the U.S. College Board Outstanding Urban Educator Award. Dr. Latanision served as Co-Principal Investigator (with Commissioner David Driscoll of the Massachusetts Department of Education, Professor Michael Silevitch of Northeastern University, and Dr. Pendred Noyce of the Noyce Foundation ) of an NSF sponsored statewide systemic initiative of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts oriented toward educational reform entitled Project PALMS  Partnerships Advancing Learning of Mathematics and Science. He is an Overseer of the Boston Museum of Science. Dr. Latanision served as an education advisor in Senator Paul Tsongas' 1992 campaign for the presidency. During the 1996-97 academic year, Professor Latanision was on sabbatical working with the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on the role of universities in K-12 education.

Carolyn and Ron Latanision live in Winchester, Massachusetts. Carolyn is a professional painter whose studio is in Winchester. They have two children: Ivan, Publishing Systems Manager at American Banker (a division of Thomson Financial Services) in New York City, and Sara, who recently completed her PhD in Biology from Boston University.